1952: 'Gator pays visit to TWC Professor

Oscar, the alligator who wanted a college education, was back in his San Jacinto Plaza home Thursday night – probably regaling his lazier cohorts with tales of campus life.

Oscar turned up quite unexpectedly Thursday mooring in the office of Dr. H.E. Quinn, chairman of the geology department at Texas Western College.

Dr. Quinn, probably figuring that the department had enough fossils on hand without a live one weighing close to 400 pounds, slammed the door, called police, and went about his business.

Just how Oscar got out of the Plaza’s alligator pond, up to the college, and through a couple of supposedly locked doors into

Dr. Quinn’s office remained something of a mystery. A mystery that had the campus roaring.

The alligator, whose age was set at “close to 60” by City park Commissioner Hugo Meyer, was unceremoniously hauled out of Dr. Quinn’s office and dumped into a city truck for his homeward trip about 10 a.m. – some 90 minutes after the geology head had opened his door to find a wide-mouthed alligator on the floor.

A large crowd of amused students witnessed the removal – but nobody was making any admissions.

City and college officials alike were inclined to dismiss the whole thing – smilingly – as another “student body prank.” Oscar, back in the pond, seemed willing to go along with that view.

Meyer late Thursday said the Plaza watchman reported leaving his pot for a cup of coffee about 4 a.m.

“I was gone about 15 minutes,” he reported. “When I returned, a boy who’d been standing at the pond when I left said that a bunch of youths had jumped in the pool, taken something out, put it in a car, and sped away.”

The incident appeared to have few unsettling effects.

Oscar, who proved himself shy by trying to crawl under Dr. Quinn’s desk when his keepers – and some photographers – entered, showed no ill effects. The office, which had a few chairs knocked about by the alligator’s “wagging” tail, was back in order.

And the professor himself still was unruffled. Aside from his look of surprise when he first discovered his caller, he showed just one sign of nervousness all day: he forgot to call the roll at his 9 a.m. class.